ALtErNaTiVe eggs.....AND IT'S MY 2ND BLOGIVERSARY!!!!!!

EEEEEEEEEEEEEW! It's pastel HELL time again!!!! I shant go into another Easter Rant again this year.....I promise. This weekend is our Spring celebration here in Still Under 2 Feet of Snow, Alaska. Always a weird thing trying to honor Spring when the world outside is covered in cold white and MUD.....bare trees and grey skies. We're in that yearly bummer of a phase where the snow is both melty and icy hard, depending on the time of day, so you can't really ski, snowshoe or sled anymore (as evidenced in this video of me trying to ski on hard icy snow):

.....but you can't hike on the trails and enjoy the ridges yet, either. For the past few weeks I have perused blogs teaming with burgeoning spring! Sunny photos of kids, sans coat and hat, outside soaking up the freshness! Things have been quiet here in that respect....still, but with a stirring below that will eventually enfold in all it's fecund GLORY!!!! Oh, YEAH it will!!! But it will be awhile...~sigh....

In the meantime we've engaged in our usual Bring IN the Spring activities.....forcing willow branches inside, starting some seeds for the butterfly garden, making a gourd birdhouse, etc. And now, we are on to the eggs. Lo will be playing hooky from school today so we can do our eggs and other Springy things. I've tried to keep Lo out of the Easter Schmunsky isles at the grocery store so that she won't catch a glimpse off all those cheesy PAAS coloring kits! Glitter, Disney characters....and that nasty "tie-dye" one. Ever notice how STICKY the PAAS "tie-dye" eggs come out?! INSTANT pet fur and lint magnets....

Since my head has been in such a PAINTING space lately-I've been gettin' CRUNK on canvas for 2 months now!!!!- I thought it would be fun to incorporate a little of that in this year's Just Say NO to PAAS egg decorating.

This year, we decided to decorate eggs that would last for future Spring decor and celebration. We created our own mini egg canvases......on which to embellish in many ways. I bought some cheap fake decorative eggs from Micheal's (you can also use plastic Easter basket eggs), and gessoed them white just like you would prime a canvas for painting. From here we experimented with both acrylic paint and fibers- silk, wool and cheese cloth.

Here's what you'll need:

plastic eggs

sand paper

white gesso

paintbrush

various types of fibers

glossy Mod Podge

Here is our process:

1. Use sandpaper to lightly sand the surface of your egg-just enough to cover the egg in sandpaper scratches. This will provide "tooth" for your gesso to adhere to.

2. Apply 2 coats of gesso to your egg. Let the first coat dry before adding the next.

3. Take your wool or silk fibers(for mine I used wool roving and silk pulled from hand spun silk yarn) and gently pull the fibers away from each other.

4. Cover you egg with a coat of Mod Podge and place pulled fibers on the egg.

5. Gently paint on more Mod Podge and use your brush to manipulate the fibers where you would like them to be placed.

6. You can also keep your egg canvas white and paint it in what ever style you like with acrylic or watercolor paint.

7. Let dry...and display!!!

And what's THIS?!?!? A poor lost dinosaur egg! HOW did it get there with the other Spring eggs?!??!

A quick and easy tutorial on how to make Dino eggs will have to wait until next week! Plus, I have a bit to say about this 2 yr blogiversary....

MERRY SPRING!!!!

Finally! ...Spring arrives...

3 or 4 Black capped chickadees were scoping out this little birdhouse that Lo painted! Delightful to think of a family of birds to view, but I just stuck the birdhouse on this cut branch that is leaning in the corner of our deck-very precarious!!! We'll have to find away to secure the whole thing! It was wonderful to sit and watch them explore it while I sat in the sunshine and finished up Lo's new doll.

Unexpected beauty! Our forced branches that we glue-gunned tissue blossoms on are actually sprouting leaves!

The last few days have been GLORIOUSLY sunny and warm! 60 degrees! The snow is melting fast up on the mountains and I'm amazed at how quickly our yard melted! Within 3 days we experienced The Melting(a noticeable diminish in snow pack), The Rivers(suddenly that melt is released and our property and driveway are inundated with little riverlets), and now we are in The Bog phase(still can't kneel on the ground without getting your pants wet). Usually this is drawn out for a week or two or four. Not so this year! And it's nice. Around this time last year we had experienced similar gorgeous days that had us out on the deck playing and doing projects in shorts and tanks. And then WHAM! we got hit with 17 inches of snow! Mindblowing! HERE is the page of posts on this freak snowstorm(scroll down). Now, a year and 1 week later, we have been out on the deck drinking in the warmth and light, working on party favors for Lo's Birthday party on Sunday .

I CAN'T even imagine a snowstorm happening now.And we're finally starting to see those welcome signs of Spring! Yay! We're catching up to everyone out there in the blogoshpere who have been talking about springtime for WEEKS!!!!

Lo was begging to get her ears pierced for her Birthday(Too young! Already went that route with Dea who couldn't stomach the maintenance!) so we settled on a new hair cut-looped about 5 inches off!

Bringing in the Spring

More spring pretties:

We're getting a little impatient for spring, now, so this past week we worked a bit more on creating our Inside Spring.

We glued some tissue paper blossoms on a branch

to go along with the ones being forced. Lo ripped little pieces from our tissue paper, crumpled them and gave a little twist to the bottom so that I could glue-gun them to the branch right on top of the actual buds. Kids can also use regular glue-it's trickier and since Lo has been sick she didn't have the patience for that! :(

Last week we started making Spring batiks on fabric. This one is quite easy. Using Elmer's glue(the blue kind that fades when dry is ideal-believe me! As you can see, we used white and it was difficult to see) kids can squeeze out or paint a Spring scene.

Lo made a flower garden on a sunny day and I made some budding birch trees. We let it dry over night and then painted them with watered down acrylics.

After drying another night we washed them to remove the glue. The colors faded quite a bit, much to Lo's chagrin, but I liked the effect! We attached them onto alder branches and left the edges of the fabric torn for a rough look. Wouldn't it be cool if they blossomed! Art in transition!

Aaaaaaaand, here we have your standard run-o-the-mill tissue paper and pipe cleaner butterflies. Perfect activity for Lo's lack of energy but quite pretty and cheering after we hung them on a branch by the window!

Spring Equinox revisited

They don't call me RunninL8 for nothin! I drive myself nuts not posting relevant stuff in a timely manner. But...better late than never,yes?

As you can see, it still be winter here. We're under about 2 ft of snowpack. Yesterday and last Thursday Lo and I went on a couple of great snowshoes up Bear Pass across the valley from our house. We brought a sled both times so that we could zip back down the mountain to the trailhead. Dea and I had tried this a few years ago. We brought big black trash bags to wear for our attempt to glacade down in a timely rip-roaring manner. The snow was a bit deep at that time and it just didn't work the way we had hoped. It was more of a butt-scoot to the bottom and we over-shot the trail and had to bushwhack back to the parking lot! Thursday, we tried out the roll up Whamo! sled which slid nicely but wouldn't stay on the packed down trail so there were a lot of stops and starts. Fun, none-the-less. Yesterday, Huz joined us and the 3 of us piled on a long cheepo plastic sled. The conditions and sled type were right because we careened hazardously down the mountain at a dangerous speed-me with visions of Natasha Richardson(my heart just bleeds for that family) in my head-having quite a bit of trouble using our heels to brake and steer. We hit a few patches of brush when Lo decided to hold on to my FACE instead of my waist, but we made it down in one piece. And because no one got hurt...THAT WAS ONE KILLER RIDE DOWN!!!!!! But next time, HELMETS for sure.

On the Spring Equinox, Lo and I went out to enjoy the wonderfully sunny, cloudless day. It was pretty hard to imagine SPRING with the cold wind nipping our noses. We went in search of signs of life, looking both high and down low for any new green. Our walk conjured up memories of when I was a child in new Jersey, walking to school and discovering the first crocuses popping up. A sign of warm weather and the end of the school year coming into sight! I'm not necessarily ready for winter to be over-still so much skiing, sledding and snowshoeing to do, but it would really thrill Lo to see one of those hearty flowers poking up from the snow! Not to be, here in Alaska! The ONLY new life emerging was at the very tippy tops of the willows on our property.

Little fuzzy pussy willows. Lo was excited to see them, wishing she could collect some. They were too high up but we did cut a couple branches to take inside and force-something we do each Spring Equinox so that there can be some semblance of spring! The idea is to get some opening buds, pussy willows and green leaves popping by Easter. Some may recall my post from last year on how hard it can be in Alaska to celebrate certain seasonal rhythms. We just have to make do with what we are offered and create more of a spring inside the house! Let's be glad we're NOT seeing signs of Spring on the Equinox because that would be a REALLY bad sign!!!

So, later that day we made sure our birds and squirrel buddy, Chit-chat, were stocked with food and we tidied up our little birdhouse with the see-through back in the hopes that this year a bird couple will use it! If anyone has tried one of these birdhouses, let me know how it went for you! Inside, nice and warm, we decided we would make our own nest and eggs for the nature table.

I found this cute yarn nest idea at No Time For Flash Cards but thought we could add our own twist to it.

We followed the instructions, dipping our yarn in Elmer's Glue and wrapping it around the bottom half of a balloon. But when the nest was dry and we popped the balloon out, 2 birdies went about the house searching for pieces of string and ribbons, bits of fabric, and tufts of colored wool to weave into the nest-just like real birds.

For our eggs, I bought some made of wood from Micheal's and Lo painted them blue with brown flecks. The flecking was done using a small brush with firm bristles and a plastic pallet knife. She just rubbed the knife along the bristles causing the paint to splatter.

They came out quite pretty and although the nest is a little over-the top with color, it's a nice addition for our table! We're thinking of adding some "findings" to the nest as well-buttons, charms, etc. I think we might try this nest making method to make a new (Easter) Spring basket for the Spring bunny to fill next weekend!

HAPPY SOLSTICE!

The Season of Snow is Upon Us

We've got about 2 -3 feet of snow-pack now and spent the weekend taking full advantage of it. This year's snow slides are being established on the property, and after cutting down so much brush this summer due to bears, we have a lot more area to use.

On Friday we joined Nature Lady and family for a ski out to the cabin they were renting for a couple of days. Nature Lady is the Head Naturalist at the Eagle River Nature Center and they have an extensive trail system including part of the original Iditerod Trail.

There are a few yurts and cabins sprinkled about and are available to the public throughout the year. It was a stormy looking day but beautiful none the less.

Since Lo has only skied a handful of times we brought the chariot for her to ride in in case she got tired on the way out. She was nervous about being on skis again but after awhile she got her ski legs back and did great! She skied most of the way to the cabin.

Dea, Leisel and Wolfman took off right away and were pretty much out of sight for the trip.

Once at the cabin the wood stove was fired up, lunch was eaten, whiskey was sipped, some knitting commenced, and there was much tawk. It was dark when we bid the O family farewell and we donned our headlamps, bundled a sleepy Lo into the chariot with her baby, and headed back down the trail toward home and Thanksgiving left overs.

On Sunday our friends from The Valley came up for a snow shoe and dinner. We had just received about 5 more inches from Sat nights storm and were still socked in but the trip was wonderful. Dea and Lo stayed back at the house for some sister time while the adults took off. We parked the truck about a half mile from the house and just headed up the valley to see how far we could get.

The JOY of snowshoes! They can get you anywhere! There is so much area in this valley that is inaccessible in the summer due to heavy brush but in the winter, it's a free for all! We spent about 3 hours playin in the back yard before heading back. Huz made some KILLER turkey soup which hit the spot-along with some homebrew-after our hearty snow-shoeing.

I promised myself our next show shoe outing will be UP. To the top of the ridge behind our house. Back there is a "bowl" where many a die hard skier/snowborder will climb and ski in the winter. You can follow a spine up to the top that will keep you out of the avalanche zone. Once you're at the top you've got a 360 of our valley and the next one over where the O family lives. Once, they were actually able to see Huz and I up there through their spotting scope! We gave them a call on our cell when we got to the top and they could see us jumping up and down waving our arms!

We just need a couple-3 hours and a clear sunny day and we're there...

Whoops. I seem to have a habit of occasionally creating posts and then forgetting to publish them. This one was meant for Sunday. It was quite the productive day. It started off with this early morning shot of the first hint of the sunrise beyond the horizon just starting to touch the wispy clouds over Bear Pass. It came out orange-y in the picture but when I saw it out the window after going to the bathroom, it looked kind of blueish and I thought it might be the aurora. It was 5 degrees outside so I went back into my nice warm bed to spoon my toasty hunny. But then I thought,"Man. Am I gonna let this rare chance to photograph the aurora reaching horizontally across Orion slip by cuz I'm being a pussy and going back to bed?!?!"

Of course, as I stood outside the door neckid but for my robe and snow boots, I realized it was just clouds when the picture came up on the display. Back to bed with me-but it was worth the shot!

The rest of the day saw much activity with bread baking, dollhouse making, homebrew bottling("First Snow IPA"), pumpkin carving, pumpkin seed roasting(I made a KILLER batch! Hold me back!), and movie watching with skirt steak and potatah eating.

I'll post the results of our labors tomorrow.